-아/어 보다: Try Doing / Give It a Go | Korean Grammar

The verb 보다 means "to see" — but glued onto another verb as an auxiliary, -아/어 보다, it stops meaning "see" and instead frames the action as an attempt: "try doing X," "do X and see how it turns out." 먹어 보다 is not "eat and see"; it's "give eating it a try." This is one of the most useful and most frequent auxiliaries in everyday Korean, powering everything from a friend pushing a dish at you (한번 먹어 봐요!) to a shop assistant inviting you to test something (입어 보세요).

Forming it

Take the verb's -아/어 form (the same connective stem you use for the polite ending -아/어요) and add 보다:

Verb	-아/어 form	보다	Meaning
먹다 (eat)	먹어	먹어 보다	try eating
가다 (go)	가	가 보다	try going / go and see
하다 (do)	해	해 보다	give it a try
입다 (wear)	입어	입어 보다	try on

The 아 vs 어 choice is ordinary vowel harmony — stems with ㅏ/ㅗ take 아 보다 (앉아 보다), everything else takes 어 보다 (먹어 보다) — the same rule as vowel harmony in -아/어. The 보다 half then conjugates like the normal verb it is: present 봐요, past 봤어요, polite request 보세요.

이거 한번 먹어 보세요. 정말 맛있어요.

igeo hanbeon meogeo boseyo. jeongmal masisseoyo

Try this — it's really good.

새로 나온 앱을 한번 써 봤어요.

saero naon aebeul hanbeon sseo bwasseoyo

I tried out the newly released app.

안 되면 다른 방법을 찾아 봐요.

an doemyeon dareun bangbeobeul chaja bwayo

If that doesn't work, let's try finding another way.

The reframing: 보다 no longer means "see"

Here is the mental shift. As an independent verb, 보다 is perception — "to see, to watch, to look at." As an auxiliary, it drains out that perceptual meaning and leaves behind the idea of experimentation: you do the action in order to find out what it's like or whether it works. English "try" carries the same double life ("try the soup" = taste it experimentally), which makes this one of the friendlier Korean auxiliaries to internalize.

제주도에 꼭 한번 가 보고 싶어요.

Jejudo-e kkok hanbeon ga bogo sipeoyo

I really want to visit Jeju (try going) someday.

This experimental sense shows up most in two very high-frequency shapes:

-아/어 보세요 — a soft, encouraging invitation: "why don't you try…?" It's the polite imperative of choice for recommendations, far gentler than a bare command.
-아/어 봤어요 — "I tried it / I've done it," which naturally shades into experience ("I've given it a go before").

💡

The past -아/어 봤어요 sits right next to the experiential perfect. 먹어 봤어요 ("I've tried eating it") and 먹어 본 적이 있어요 ("I have the experience of having tried it") overlap heavily — see -(으)ㄴ 적이 있다. 봤어요 is the quick spoken version; 본 적이 있다 is the explicit "at some point in my life" version.

Don't confuse -아/어 보다 (try) with -아/어 보이다 (seem)

This is the boundary that catches every learner, because the two share the same 보- root but point in opposite directions:

-아/어 보다 = the subject actively does something as an attempt. Direction: outward, active.
-아/어 보이다 = something appears / looks / seems a certain way to an observer. Direction: inward, perceptual. It attaches to adjectives: 좋아 보이다 ("looks good"), 피곤해 보이다 ("looks tired").

이 옷 어때요? 아주 좋아 보여요.

i ot eottaeyo? aju joa boyeoyo

How's this outfit? — It looks really good.

많이 피곤해 보여요. 좀 쉬어요.

mani pigonhae boyeoyo. jom swieoyo

You look really tired. Get some rest.

💡

One quick diagnostic settles the 보다 / 보이다 split: look at the word in front. An action verb (먹다, 입다, 가다) → attempt, 보다 (먹어 보다). A descriptive verb / adjective (좋다, 피곤하다) → appearance, 보이다 (좋아 보이다). The two never overlap.

Notice these are descriptions of appearance, not attempts. You cannot "try being good"; 좋아 보다 is not a thing. Conversely, 옷을 입어 보다 ("try on clothes") is an action, and 옷이 좋아 보이다 ("the clothes look good") is a perception. The clue is the word in front: an action verb before 보- → attempt (보다); a descriptive verb / adjective before 보- → appearance (보이다).

A subtle nuance: "try" ≠ "attempt and fail"

English "I tried to open it (but couldn't)" implies failure. Korean -아/어 보다 does not imply failure — it just means you gave the action a go; whether it succeeded is left open, often assumed successful.

문을 열어 봤어요.

muneul yeoreo bwasseoyo

I gave the door a try / I tried opening it (and saw what happened).

If you specifically want "I attempted to X (with effort, implying difficulty or failure)," Korean uses a different construction, -(으)려고 하다 ("try/attempt to," "be about to"):

문을 열려고 했지만 잠겨 있었어요.

muneul yeollyeogo haetjiman jamgyeo isseosseoyo

I tried to open the door, but it was locked.

So 열어 봤어요 = "I gave it a go," while 열려고 했어요 = "I made an effort to (and it was hard)." Keep the two "try"s apart — the effort-and-possible-failure sense is on -(으)려고 하다, while a wondering "shall I try…?" leans on -(으)ㄹ까.

Common Mistakes

1. Using -아/어 보다 (try) when you mean -아/어 보이다 (seem). Appearance takes 보이다.

❌ 오늘 정말 행복해 봐요.

Wrong — 'you look happy today' is appearance: 행복해 보여요.

✅ 오늘 정말 행복해 보여요.

oneul jeongmal haengbokae boyeoyo

You look really happy today.

2. Getting the vowel harmony wrong on the -아/어 form. ㅏ/ㅗ stems take 아, not 어.

❌ 여기 잠깐 앉어 보세요.

Incorrect harmony — 앉다 has ㅏ, so it's 앉아 보세요.

✅ 여기 잠깐 앉아 보세요.

yeogi jamkkan anja boseyo

Try sitting here for a moment.

3. Stacking 보다 on 보다 itself. "Try watching" a movie doubles the 보- awkwardly; Koreans just use plain 보다.

❌ 그 영화 봐 봤어요?

Awkward doubling — for 'have you seen that movie?' just say 봤어요?

✅ 그 영화 봤어요?

geu yeonghwa bwasseoyo

Have you seen that movie?

4. Attaching 보다 to the wrong stem. The attempt auxiliary needs the -아/어 form, not -고 or the dictionary form.

❌ 이 음식 한번 먹고 보세요.

Wrong form for 'give it a try' — the attempt auxiliary needs the -아/어 stem: 먹어 보세요. (먹고 보다 would mean 'eat first, then see.')

✅ 이 음식 한번 먹어 보세요.

i eumsik hanbeon meogeo boseyo

Give this food a try.

5. Expecting -아/어 봤어요 to convey a failed attempt. It doesn't — it just means you gave it a go.

❌ 문을 열어 봤어요.

If you mean 'I tried hard to open it but couldn't,' this misses that — 봤어요 only says you gave it a go. Use 열려고 했어요 for the effortful, may-have-failed sense.

✅ 문을 열려고 했지만 안 열렸어요.

muneul yeollyeogo haetjiman an yeollyeosseoyo

I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open.

Key Takeaways

-아/어 보다 = "try doing / do X and see" — the auxiliary drains 보다 of its "see" meaning and leaves attempt / experiment.
Highest-frequency in -아/어 보세요 (a soft "why don't you try…") and -아/어 봤어요 ("I tried it," shading into experience).
Keep it distinct from -아/어 보이다 ("looks / seems"), which attaches to adjectives and describes appearance, not action.
It does not imply failure; for effortful "attempt (and maybe fail)," use -(으)려고 하다.

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